


Our Only Happy Ending

by lunarsilverwolfstar



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-04
Packaged: 2017-12-13 22:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/829361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarsilverwolfstar/pseuds/lunarsilverwolfstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor is dragged through to Pete's world and finds more than he's bargained for. Post-The Wedding of River Song.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Only Happy Ending

**Author's Note:**

> I'm fully blaming [yumimum](http://archiveofourown.org/users/yumimum) for this. She reblogged [this gif set](http://yumimum.livejournal.com/93193.html) and I was a goner. Huge thanks to [spookyknight](http://spookyknight.tumblr.com) for beta'ing this! I've had this on file for awhile and finally got around to finishing it. This is NOT a Doctor/River story, okay folks? There's no bashing (I don't think), but it's still a Doctor/Rose fic.

It wasn't hard to track them down even in a city the size of London. Their unique signatures gave them away easily. What was startling was the extra life signature that was recorded as he got closer. That was odd. If it had just been a friend or someone staying over, it would have been recorded right away. Worried that there might be an intruder, especially since it was three in the morning, the Doctor hurried along and found himself outside a house with a TARDIS-blue door. 'At least I know I'm at the right place,' he thought with a crooked smile. Quietly, he entered the house, and went up the stairs, making his way through the corridor as he continued to follow the extra signature.

He passed by an open door and entered the next room. Suddenly, he found himself in a… "Nursery," he whispered, awed. His eyes immediately locked onto a small bundle inside a mahogany crib. A moving bundle. He hesitated, but approached nonetheless. It was an out-of-body experience as his arms automatically reached for the… A small presence grazed his mind and he looked at the precious cargo in his arms in utter wonder. "Hello Jack Tyler. I'm the Doctor."

Hazel eyes that matched his mother's perfectly gazed back at him and his hearts filled with warmth.

The Doctor didn't know how long he stood there for, but the world seemed to stall around the two so it was no wonder he didn't hear the rustling of someone waking up for the day a couple of hours later or the shower turning on, then off. After what felt like eternity to the Lord of Time, he spoke, "Let me tell you a short story, Jack. Your dad and I used to be the same person. We used to travel through the stars together with your mum."

Sunrise was just starting to peek into the window of the room, but the occupants of the room were wholly ignorant of it and of the presence that now stood just outside.

"And I kid you not-the stars are beyond beautiful. I wish I could take you for one trip, but I'm not sure your parents would let me." He pressed a kiss on the head of an eight-month-old who had no right to have it full of hair.

The person outside bowed their head, trying to keep their emotions in check. Anger, because how dare he? Of course they wouldn't let him. Anguish, because how could he keep his son from the stars? Oh, not now, but later, when he was older and held the same wanderlust as his parents. Understanding, because he knew that could very well have been him in the room right now.

A tidal wave of emotions suddenly flooded the Time Lord and he turned to the open door warily. "Jack… Your dad is standing outside, isn't he?"

The Doctor created from a biological Metacrisis smirked in amusement, even as his eyes filled with tears. He shook his head and let anger take the reins. He entered the room swiftly, carefully closing the door behind him so if things got a little…rowdy (which he hoped they didn't – expecting to be able to control himself for Jack's sake), they wouldn't awaken Rose.

The Doctor turned to the Time Lord, his face blank. "Fancy seeing you here, Doctor."

The Time Lord simply continued to hold Jack, facing his other self. "Hello Doctor, how have you been?"

He didn't know what enraged him more, the fact that he continued to hold onto Jack or just his mere presence in this universe. "What are you doing here?" His tone was neutral, but his eyes betrayed the rage held within.

"Still rude, I see. Only fair, I'm still not ginger." Seeing his other self not budge an inch, he sighed. "There was a crack left from the last universal disaster, thought I'd drop in."

The half-human Doctor highly doubted this was the case. If the Doctor had any rules, one was that he never looked back. Of course, when it came to one pink and yellow girl, he tended to disregard all regulations, even his own guidelines. However, he didn't think it was the case this time. They were, after all, essentially still the same man, and he knew that, were he in his place, it'd take a lot more courage than he had to work up the guts to come here and see what he was missing, what he could have had. "The TARDIS dragged you in, didn't she?" A smirk slipped into place when the other man spluttered in denial.

Before the man with two hearts could rebuff, he and the Doctor froze as they heard the doorknob turn.

"Doctor, are you…?" the voice trailed off as its owner took in the sight of a strange, green-eyed man holding her son. Rose Tyler's voice immediately turned to steel. "Let go of my son, right now. I don't know who or what you are, but you are not dragging him into anything." In the blink of an eye, she had a gun aimed at him, though, for the first time in a long time, her hand shook slightly. She didn't want Jack hurt, but if she could disarm the stranger, maybe that would give the Doctor an opening to… She blinked as she felt the warm, gentle hand of her husband lowering her hand with the gun.

"It's okay, Rose, it's just…"

"Me," the other man finished, turning back around. As soon as the gun had been in sight, he'd automatically turned around, his entire being ready to protect Jack even if he knew in his mind and hearts that Rose Tyler would never fire a weapon at her son.

Confusion filled her face, at first. Staring into the serious green eyes of the man a few feet before her, she caught mischief, curiosity, admiration, and a weariness she'd only ever seen in one man. Plus the way he'd immediately protected her son… "Doctor." She did her best to keep her tone in check and knew she was successful when she saw this new body flinch. She'd been cool, crisp, and void of emotion. What was she supposed to feel anyway? Anger, wonder, pain, lo…? No, better to not think about it. Instead she turned to her Doctor. "I'm all packed and ready to go. The girls and I are meeting up at the diner before heading out. I left everything you need on a list on the kitchen table. Are you sure you'll be able to handle Jack alone for a week?"

The brown eyed Doctor blinked at her, wondering if she was really going to ignore the other Doctor just like that. This could be the last time she ever saw him and she was acting like she didn't care he was here. He knew this wasn't true, of course, but he could only imagine her inner turmoil. She'd been abandoned by this man more times than he cared to remember and it had been the root of their problems for a long time; it had taken them a while to work through them, but now here they were. Instead of calling her on her actions, however, he simply told her, "Have a good time with the girls and don't forget to let me know when you arrive."

"Usually you're the one who needs reminding of that," she teased, before looping her arms around his neck to bring him down for a proper snog, as if they were the only two adults in the room.

The Doctor shifted Jack in his arms, his eyes darting everywhere in the room but at the couple, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. Really, what had he hoped to gain in coming here? He should have simply waited in the TARDIS as she recuperated before going off again.

Rose parted from her husband, gave him a last peck, and shouldered her bag before heading out the door.

The Doctor observed the Time Lord for awhile, before shrugging. "How long until the Old Girl recuperates?"

"Not sure, three, four days, maybe a week."

He arched a brow. It hadn't taken that long for the TARDIS to recover last time and the Doctor briefly wondered what his other self had been through in the other universe.

"Want to see her?" the green-eyed Doctor asked.

The Doctor thought about it. It'd been so long since he'd last been with the Old Girl. A hole had been left inside him, but it wasn't as large or as painful as it could have been. Sure, he missed her and missed travelling, but his new biology didn't make the pain completely physical. Plus, Rose, and now Jack, were more than enough to fill the emptiness and made his life all the more fulfilling. "No," he finally decided. "Need a place to stay?" he asked, but it was more of an offer since he knew he had nowhere else to go. The TARDIS had most likely shut herself down anyway and no one would be able to enter her until she was ready.

The Time Lord looked at the Doctor a little oddly, but didn't say anything. He shrugged. "Sure."

Surprisingly, it took three whole days before disaster struck. The Time Lord Doctor mostly stayed out of the way, playing with Jack when he was in the Doctor and Rose's home, and going for walks the rest of the time, exploring this London. The two Doctors talked little, but at the beginning of the fourth day, they exploded.

"You have no right to be here!"

"I have every right! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here now! You wouldn't have what you have! I'd-" Here he broke off, unable to continue.

"You'd what, Doctor?" He challenged. "You'd have Rose? Would you really? How long has it been for you? Fifteen, twenty, fifty, a hundred years? Would you still have her? Would you even have had her or would you have taken the coward's way out, even without me there, and have left her on the beach with her mum, leaving words unsaid?"

Before the Time Lord Doctor could respond, a loud cry was heard from the other room. Right after that, the phone rang.

The Doctor with great hair (really great hair, as Rose liked to say) shot the other Doctor a withering look before going to comfort his son, picking up the cordless phone along the way. He tried to calm his son before answering the call, but it was in vain. Checking the caller ID, he winced before answering. "Hi, Jackie. No, Jackie, we're fine. Really. You don't-"

The Time Lord watched as his half-human self tried to placate Jackie, but whatever was being said, it was obvious Jackie Tyler would win.

A sigh of exasperation escaped his mouth. "Fine. See you in a bit." With that, the Doctor hung up.

Hah, he was right. He tried to keep the smug expression off his face, but was sure he failed when his half-human, half Time Lord self shot him a dark look.

"I wouldn't look so high and mighty if I were you, Doctor. You're coming along."

A cold feeling of dread flowed through his entire being.

\---

"How's my grandson?! Is your dad treating you alright?" Jackie grabbed honey-eyed Jack from the Doctor's arms, with barely a greeting to her son-in-law.

"I've been doing just fine, thanks Jackie," he huffed.

"Oh you, I know you are…" Finally, she realized someone had accompanied her son-in-law. "Who's this then?" She'd never seen him before, but when she looked into green eyes that carried the weight of the universe she gasped. "Doctor!"

"Hello Jackie Tyler." He smiled, his thumbs looping into his braces, stretching them a bit. His smile was wiped clean as he took in the look on her face, suddenly glad she was holding baby Jack.

"You!" Before he knew what was happening, Jack was in his father's arms and Jackie was upon him. His entire being flinched, but his arms suddenly flailed out as the Tyler woman squeezed him in an embrace. Just before his respiratory bypass could kick in, she finally let him go. Taking his face between her hands, she said, "Thank you."

The Time Lord blinked as she took Jack back in her arms and started walking, leading them into the living room. He glared at the smirking face of his tenth, tenth and a half? self, following along after him.

They stayed for a while at Jackie's, long enough for Pete to come home from Torchwood, at least. Reintroductions were made and the Doctor was pleasantly surprised at the warm welcome he received. He thought after the cold way Rose had greeted him he wouldn't be wanted at the Tyler Mansion. Unfortunately, he didn't get to meet Tony Tyler as he was in summer camp.

By the time the Doctors and Jack headed back home, the tension between the two same, but slightly different, men had eased.

The next few days passed with relative calm.

\---

The brown-eyed Doctor was cooking when Rose finally came home at the end of the week. He'd been busy concentrating on the recipe, wanting Rose to arrive with a decent, home-cooked meal on the table. He startled slightly when he felt someone come up from behind, wrapping their arms around him. He smelled sunshine and felt a hint of salt in the air (though that could just be the grains he'd just added to the food), in addition to a scent that was entirely Rose Tyler. "Welcome home, love," he said as he turned around and grinned, but it fell away when he saw the serious look she wore.

"What is he still doing here?" Rose felt annoyed and just a bit betrayed. She thought she had left those feelings behind, but seeing the Doctor again after all this time, in her own home had resurfaced the resentment she hadn't felt since coming to terms with her very own happily ever after. She was thankful to the Time Lord. Who knew how long it had been for him. She knew they never would have had their happy end, but it was hard to forget the feelings she felt when he'd taken away her choices. She had to remind herself it was in the past and move completely past it.

"Well, the TARDIS had to rest for awhile and he had nowhere else to stay, so I thought…"

She sighed. Really, what did she expect? Rose wouldn't have kicked him out. If anything, the Doctor had more of a reason to reject the Time Lord, but it wasn't in their nature. Instead, she gave him a half-smile and a quick peck on his lips before going to see their son.

He grabbed a spoon and dipped into the sauce before sticking it in his mouth, his tongue wrapping around it as he watched his wife head to the living room. Although he knew Rose was still upset, the Doctor knew she still loved his other self just as surely as she loved him. They were the same man after all.

When Rose turned into the corridor leading to the living room, what she saw in there warmed her heart. The Doctor was sitting on the floor with Jack, playing with his large, multi-colored blocks. As the Doctor put one block, Jack would try to put one on top of it.

"See Jack, had Gallifrey's towers been this bright, maybe we would have lasted. Instead, we were a bunch of stuffy old sods."

Rose raised a brow and, as if feeling her disapproval, wide green eyes turned to look at her.

"Rose!" He scrambled up, gangly limbs flailing every way, knocking one of the towers down. He looked down and saw similar eyes look at him, as if scolding him. "Sorry, Jack." The Doctor looked back at Rose. "I, um, I was just about to tell the Doctor, um, well, me, the other me, err, that the TARDIS is all ready to go. I was going to leave sooner, but Jack was bored and he convinced me to sit down to play with him. Stubborn boy, like his mum. You're gonna have your hands full with this one, but I know you'll do brilliantly. I know you already are." There was a long pause before he shuffled his feet and nodded awkwardly. "I'll just, I'll be going now." He walked past her to leave, but Rose placed a hand on his arm. At her, "Wait," he paused. He could never deny her anything. More silence followed in which he went back to Jack who was not happy at being ignored.

"I'm just gonna…" She looked at her husband who had suddenly appeared behind her, hoping he'd understand, and was relieved when she saw him smile.

"Yeah, I know." He bent down to give her a soft kiss, letting his trust in her pour out in that simple action that meant everything. Straightening up, he gazed into green eyes that no longer matched his own, in color or depth. Most of his darkness, the burden he once carried had been lifted, to be shared with the love of his lives (she would always be), but the full Time Lord Doctor's still carried the weight of the universes.

An understanding passed between the two men who were one and the same in everything that mattered. With a nod, the tweed-clad man looked into Jack's intense hazel eyes, mentally assuring him that the Doctor would never forget him, gave him a kiss on each cheek before putting him into his playpen, and headed for the door.

Slipping her coat back on, Rose followed the man out.

\---

They walked in silence for a few moments until the Doctor couldn't stand it any longer. "I really did think it was impossible," he rushed out.

"Impossible." She laughed. "I do not think it means what you think it means."

His smile was as crooked as his bowtie. "River altered a fixed point in time; it made the walls weaken." He wasn't surprised when she knew exactly who he was talking about.

Rose gasped, appalled. Her husband had told her of the sacrifice Professor River Song had made in The Library, how she knew him in the future and couldn't believe someone who knew the Doctor would even dare, but understanding flooded her being when he continued his explanation, much to her surprise.

"She tried to alter my death. What she didn't know was that I had already figured out a way to escape it, so the only fixed point was my apparent death, and she only would have shot a Teselecta." At her confused look, he rectified, "A robot controlled by the ‘Teselecta’ that can take on anyone's image. Anyway, she fought so hard not to shoot me and, in doing so, the universe and time itself collapsed into itself, history was happening all at once and the universe would soon disintegrate. I-I used her feelings for me against her, made a mockery of something that was part of an ageless Gallifreyan bonding ceremony, just so she could fix things. I couldn't let her sacrifice the universe for me, never for me, but she wouldn't listen to me, so I… I made it seem like we were going to get married just so she could look into the eyes of the Teselecta and see what I'd planned. Officially, however, she ‘killed’ me and is imprisoned for a crime she didn't even commit!" His own actions angered him. Oh, how he hated himself for using the daughter of his best friend, who had been brainwashed because of him, but he'd seen no other option at the time.

"I'm sorry," was all she said as she embraced him. Rose couldn't say she blamed this woman; she'd do anything to keep the Doctor safe, but she also knew the Doctor would hate her just a little if she ever endangered the universe for his sake, after everything he'd had to sacrifice for it.

He clung to her like a scared child, needing to hear words of redemption, but they never came. Her aura washed over him, however, and he held on tighter.

"I saw it, you know. This. When I was Bad Wolf."

At her words, he backed away, his eyes boring into hers, trying to find traces of…something.

She shook her head. "It's all gone now, but I've got bits and pieces." She tapped her temple. "I saw all that was, all that is, and all that ever could be. Did you never think why, if I had all that power in me, I set up Bad Wolf Bay instead of preventing our separation in the first place?"

"I just thought…I took it out of you as soon as I could…" He bowed his head.

Placing a hand on his cheek, she cupped his wide jaw so he'd look in her eyes again and she smiled sadly. "We were never gonna have our happy ending, you and me. Every twist, turn, backward flip, forward motion, ended in some tragedy or another. This was the only way to get our happy ending."

"I miss you," he admitted. "I miss you so much. I miss holding your hand, running for our lives, but it makes me so, so happy to know that somewhere, somewhen, we're together. And you are always in here. In both." He placed her hands over his chest, his two hearts beating for her.

A hum in the background alerted them both that they had arrived at the TARDIS and was ready to leave this dimension.

"Promise me something, Doctor."

"Yeah?"

"Promise me if you ever come back and Jack's bit, well a lot, more grown up and…if…we're not here any longer, if he has no one…promise me you'll take him to the stars."

He'd turned around and stared at her, watching as the last fleck of gold faded from her eyes, but her expression held the same stubbornness he'd seen all those years ago in the lift of a shop.

"I promise."

Because rule one with the Doctor was that he lied.

But not to her.

"Goodbye Doctor."

"Rose Tyler," he said one last time, with the same amount of love and tenderness as he'd always bestowed upon her name.

She stayed until the sound of the TARDIS faded and, instead of feeling sadness, joy burst within her as he'd finally said goodbye. He'd be fine, that madman in his blue box, she decided. With a skip in her step she hadn't felt in so long, she made her way back home to her two boys.


End file.
